Japanese Discussion Thread

[Daistallia 2104]

EDIT: how do you even learn japanese?

At first, try learning kana. Hiragana's more important and you'll use that a lot more often than katakana, so learn that first. Try buying things that'll help you learn Japanese, since a lot of the time they do help, and if you don't use them, you'll feel bad about wasting money, and so do them.

Try looking for websites which help teach Japanese, and try to get the grammar down, since it's really different from languages such as English. Verbs generally come at the end of the sentence.

For verbs, begin with desu, which basically means is/am/are, as well as its other forms. Deshita is the past tense of that.

Wa is the topic marker, but you can just assume that it's a subject marker while you're learning.

Like for example:

Watashi wa Arumudaumu desu.

I (topic marker) Arumdaum am.

Watashi, which means I, is the subject, wa comes after the topic, Arumdaum is the object, and desu is the verb.

If you can, try buying baby's books in Japanese.

Kids manga are good too. Doraemon and a dictionary served me well.

[Nationalist Eminral Republic]

Costly.

Isn't it like 400 million USD?

Yeah. They already have a massive debt to begin with. Although to be fair, debts Japan currently have are internal.

[Altito Asmoro]

Costly.

Isn't it like 400 million USD?

470 million.

:evil:
I'm aware. But the success of it is to be seen.

I believe in Japan and its people. I wish them luck in resolving this crisis.
By the way, how is Fukushima recovery doing? Better or worse?

Worse. The water used for to cleaning the radiation was contaminated.

[Nationalist Eminral Republic]

Isn't it like 400 million USD?

470 million.

I believe in Japan and its people. I wish them luck in resolving this crisis.
By the way, how is Fukushima recovery doing? Better or worse?

Worse. The water used for to cleaning the radiation was contaminated.

Aww..
I hope this will be solved soon.

[Altito Asmoro]

470 million.



Worse. The water used for to cleaning the radiation was contaminated.

Aww..
I hope this will be solved soon.

http://world.time.com/2013/09/06/five-e ... -fix-them/

Check this. Many experiments and measures IN THE WORLD to fix environment disasters.

[Daistallia 2104]

Hyaku is 100.

Now you can (sort of) count to 999! Mwahahaha.

Thanks.

Mawashi, Giakuzuki, Empi, Maitopigheri, Yoi, Hagime, Yame....because these words are so useful in everyday life!

Some of those actually are quite common in everyday use.

Which is the problem. The Japanese tend to not be forgiving of such things. I hate to overgeneralize because not all Japanese people are like this, but in broad terms, Japan sets a large store by, hmm... shall we say tropes? Everyone from Osaka is of course loud and energetic. Americans are all blond and blue eyed. Etc. Anyone who looks Asian is Japanese and speaks the language/knows the culture. When you end up falling outside of that trope, you don't get hostile reactions, but you can end up having to deal with people who are just flabbergasted that this is the case and therefore uncertain as to how to approach you or deal with you. One hears stories of students complaining that their English teacher isn't loud enough or talks enough to be a proper American.

Reminds me of Jack Seward's "baka barubu"* story about visiting an onsen with a niisei who spoke 0 nihongo. The innkepper kept addressing the niisei woman, throwing in how well this gaijin could speak, neh. Seward finally got tired, and, to make a long story short, ended up asking a maid how to write a particular kanji in the imperial rescript on education. When the maid didn't know the rescript, he sat her down to teach it to her. That's when the inkeeper apologised.

*That was his term for the inability of some Japanese to understand proper Japanese spoken by a white person.

What about Japanese from foreign places who return to Japan? Like Japan's considerable Brazilian community, who are mostly ethnic Japanese.

Lots of discrimination. Lots of returnees, especially kids, get the "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down" treatment.

The ni/san/yonsei from South America get some pretty rough treatment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilians_in_Japan

My uncle has a privileged position in an international company, he was working in Japan for a while but before he left he invited my cousin and I to stay in tokyo. He doesn't work in Japan anymore, so I will most likely not be staying in Hiroo ever again, but it was still cool albeit it wasn't the most expensive and largest building in tokyo hehe

On another note, I was wondering how you say my name in Japanese, its Jose. I tried saying it as is but it came out as House lol While I was in japan i opted for a more common american name lol

Odd. Jose ought to come out easily as "hozei".

I had a couple of friends in the Kobe area who's folks were P&G execs. The monthy rent for their western sized nice apartment was more than my yearly salary.

Either way, what does everyone think of Tokyo getting to host the 2020 Summer Olympics?

Maybe, just maybe, it will give some impetus to Kasumigaseki to get their act together regarding Fukushima.

[Souseiseki]

Kids manga are good too. Doraemon and a dictionary served me well.

"野比のび太は三十分後に首をつる"

well, that's an unexpected way to start a kids manga

[Mavorpen]

EDIT: how do you even learn japanese?

At first, try learning kana. Hiragana's more important and you'll use that a lot more often than katakana, so learn that first. Try buying things that'll help you learn Japanese, since a lot of the time they do help, and if you don't use them, you'll feel bad about wasting money, and so do them.

Try looking for websites which help teach Japanese, and try to get the grammar down, since it's really different from languages such as English. Verbs generally come at the end of the sentence.

For verbs, begin with desu, which basically means is/am/are, as well as its other forms. Deshita is the past tense of that.

Wa is the topic marker, but you can just assume that it's a subject marker while you're learning.

Like for example:

Watashi wa Arumudaumu desu.

I (topic marker) Arumdaum am.

Watashi, which means I, is the subject, wa comes after the topic, Arumdaum is the object, and desu is the verb.

If you can, try buying baby's books in Japanese.

JA Sensei is a great android app if you want to practice Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji in your spare time.

[Saugeais]

What an idiot. I actually forgot that i do Karate, so i know some words from that field, at least. Plus, i can count to 99.

(yeah, i'm sleepy...)

Hyaku is 100.

Now you can (sort of) count to 999! Mwahahaha.

Let's do powers of ten up to a trillion, shall we?

一、十、百、千、万、十万、百万、千万、億、十億、百億、千億、兆

Ichi, Juu, Hyaku, Sen, Man, Juu Man, Hyaku Man, Sen Man, Oku, Juu Oku, Hyaku Oku, Sen Oku, Chou.

You know, in case you need it.

[Arumdaum]

At first, try learning kana. Hiragana's more important and you'll use that a lot more often than katakana, so learn that first. Try buying things that'll help you learn Japanese, since a lot of the time they do help, and if you don't use them, you'll feel bad about wasting money, and so do them.

Try looking for websites which help teach Japanese, and try to get the grammar down, since it's really different from languages such as English. Verbs generally come at the end of the sentence.

For verbs, begin with desu, which basically means is/am/are, as well as its other forms. Deshita is the past tense of that.

Wa is the topic marker, but you can just assume that it's a subject marker while you're learning.

Like for example:

Watashi wa Arumudaumu desu.

I (topic marker) Arumdaum am.

Watashi, which means I, is the subject, wa comes after the topic, Arumdaum is the object, and desu is the verb.

If you can, try buying baby's books in Japanese.

JA Sensei is a great android app if you want to practice Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji in your spare time.

Is it free?

[Mavorpen]

JA Sensei is a great android app if you want to practice Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji in your spare time.

Is it free?

Yep. You can purchase the full version for $10 if you want the complete deal with all of the vocabulary, audio clips, kanji, etc. But you get access to all of the kana and over 2,000 kanji as well as some vocabulary and grammar for free.

[Saugeais]

JA Sensei is a great android app if you want to practice Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji in your spare time.

Is it free?

Just checked. It is.

Edit: 忍者'd

[NERVUN]

Which is the problem. The Japanese tend to not be forgiving of such things. I hate to overgeneralize because not all Japanese people are like this, but in broad terms, Japan sets a large store by, hmm... shall we say tropes? Everyone from Osaka is of course loud and energetic. Americans are all blond and blue eyed. Etc. Anyone who looks Asian is Japanese and speaks the language/knows the culture. When you end up falling outside of that trope, you don't get hostile reactions, but you can end up having to deal with people who are just flabbergasted that this is the case and therefore uncertain as to how to approach you or deal with you. One hears stories of students complaining that their English teacher isn't loud enough or talks enough to be a proper American.

What about Japanese from foreign places who return to Japan? Like Japan's considerable Brazilian community, who are mostly ethnic Japanese.

Returnees usually have a lot of problems I'm afraid.

[Sahrani DR]

At first, try learning kana. Hiragana's more important and you'll use that a lot more often than katakana, so learn that first. Try buying things that'll help you learn Japanese, since a lot of the time they do help, and if you don't use them, you'll feel bad about wasting money, and so do them.


If you can, try buying baby's books in Japanese.

JA Sensei is a great android app if you want to practice Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji in your spare time.

Unfortunately, i don't own a smartphone.

Anyways, imo Fukushima is going to become another Prjpyat.

[Nightkill the Emperor]

What about Japanese from foreign places who return to Japan? Like Japan's considerable Brazilian community, who are mostly ethnic Japanese.

Returnees usually have a lot of problems I'm afraid.

Such as and why?

[Norstal]

Returnees usually have a lot of problems I'm afraid.

Such as and why?

Well, if I were to guess, since Japanese people expects Asians to act like Japanese, it would be a lot more embarrassing and awkward when it's their own people who can't act Japanese.

[Daistallia 2104]

Returnees usually have a lot of problems I'm afraid.

Such as and why?

Note: returnees is usually used in the context of Japan for children of parents who've spent time as expatriates, rather than people of ethnic Japanese heritage born overseas who come back to the homeland. The Japanese term is "kikokushijo". The common term for people of ethnic Japanese heritage born overseas who come back to the homeland is "dekasegi". It particularly refers to South Americans, especially Brazilians and Peruvians. There were a large number who returned in the 80s and 90s. The dekasegi have their own problems.

Returnees are often bullied because they don't fit in due to cultural and linguistic changes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kikokushijo
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2 ... returnees/

[Nightkill the Emperor]

Such as and why?

Note: returnees is usually used in the context of Japan for children of parents who've spent time as expatriates, rather than people of ethnic Japanese heritage born overseas who come back to the homeland. The Japanese term is "kikokushijo". The common term for people of ethnic Japanese heritage born overseas who come back to the homeland is "dekasegi". It particularly refers to South Americans, especially Brazilians and Peruvians. There were a large number who returned in the 80s and 90s. The dekasegi have their own problems.

Returnees are often bullied because they don't fit in due to cultural and linguistic changes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kikokushijo
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2 ... returnees/

Ah.

[Daistallia 2104]

Such as and why?

Well, if I were to guess, since Japanese people expects Asians to act like Japanese, it would be a lot more embarrassing and awkward when it's their own people who can't act Japanese.

That's sort of it, but not exactly.

A really good example came from a friend who was teaching English in the public schools. In one of his classes, he had a returnee. Returnees, especially those who lived in Anglophone countries, quite often speak English well. Many Japanese students, for a variety of reasons we won't go into right now, have trouble with English. Behind this kid in class sat a kid who particularly struggled. The returnee kid had no intention of showing up the other kid, but he did just by virtue of his life experience. As i mentioned above, in japan, the nail that sticks out gets hammered down. Sometimes it happens quite literally. In this case, one day in class, the weak at English kid decided the returnee needed hammering down, and gave him a good hard smack on the head with a heavy book when he answered the teachers question easily. The returnee clammed up and stopped "showing off" his English abilities in class.

[Daistallia 2104]

Note: returnees is usually used in the context of Japan for children of parents who've spent time as expatriates, rather than people of ethnic Japanese heritage born overseas who come back to the homeland. The Japanese term is "kikokushijo". The common term for people of ethnic Japanese heritage born overseas who come back to the homeland is "dekasegi". It particularly refers to South Americans, especially Brazilians and Peruvians. There were a large number who returned in the 80s and 90s. The dekasegi have their own problems.

Returnees are often bullied because they don't fit in due to cultural and linguistic changes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kikokushijo
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2 ... returnees/

Ah.

The problems of the dekasegi are covered pretty well in the earlier wiki page I posted on Brazillians.

[Nightkill the Emperor]

Well, if I were to guess, since Japanese people expects Asians to act like Japanese, it would be a lot more embarrassing and awkward when it's their own people who can't act Japanese.

That's sort of it, but not exactly.

A really good example came from a friend who was teaching English in the public schools. In one of his classes, he had a returnee. Returnees, especially those who lived in Anglophone countries, quite often speak English well. Many Japanese students, for a variety of reasons we won't go into right now, have trouble with English. Behind this kid in class sat a kid who particularly struggled. The returnee kid had no intention of showing up the other kid, but he did just by virtue of his life experience. As i mentioned above, in japan, the nail that sticks out gets hammered down. Sometimes it happens quite literally. In this case, one day in class, the weak at English kid decided the returnee needed hammering down, and gave him a good hard smack on the head with a heavy book when he answered the teachers question easily. The returnee clammed up and stopped "showing off" his English abilities in class.

I'm genuinely astonished by that.

[Daistallia 2104]

That's sort of it, but not exactly.

A really good example came from a friend who was teaching English in the public schools. In one of his classes, he had a returnee. Returnees, especially those who lived in Anglophone countries, quite often speak English well. Many Japanese students, for a variety of reasons we won't go into right now, have trouble with English. Behind this kid in class sat a kid who particularly struggled. The returnee kid had no intention of showing up the other kid, but he did just by virtue of his life experience. As i mentioned above, in japan, the nail that sticks out gets hammered down. Sometimes it happens quite literally. In this case, one day in class, the weak at English kid decided the returnee needed hammering down, and gave him a good hard smack on the head with a heavy book when he answered the teachers question easily. The returnee clammed up and stopped "showing off" his English abilities in class.

I'm genuinely astonished by that.

Bullying is a huge problem in Japan, especially in schools.

[Rio Cana]

JA Sensei is a great android app if you want to practice Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji in your spare time.

Unfortunately, i don't own a smartphone.

Anyways, imo Fukushima is going to become another Prjpyat.

I think you are right. The Japanese company in hand with the govt. seemed to have tried to keep what is happening there quiet. They also keep repeating that the contamination is not that bad. What else could they say.

[Kiruri]

Im supper glad! Probably wont be going, but still, its a good economy-booster.

Olympics are not economic boosters, they're economic killers.

Just look at how Montreal and Greece did afterwards.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... ative.html

I guess you're right

[Kiruri]

My uncle has a privileged position in an international company, he was working in Japan for a while but before he left he invited my cousin and I to stay in tokyo. He doesn't work in Japan anymore, so I will most likely not be staying in Hiroo ever again, but it was still cool albeit it wasn't the most expensive and largest building in tokyo hehe

On another note, I was wondering how you say my name in Japanese, its Jose. I tried saying it as is but it came out as House lol While I was in japan i opted for a more common american name lol

Odd. Jose ought to come out easily as "hozei".

I had a couple of friends in the Kobe area who's folks were P&G execs. The monthy rent for their western sized nice apartment was more than my yearly salary.

I wish I was supper rich And I didn't want my name to be the "Americanized" pronunciation lol, I wanted to use the Spanish pronunciation, According to the internet its ホセ